With approximately one in four people in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. living with a disability, ensuring that audiences feel welcome and their access needs are met is both the right thing to do and a business imperative for live event and entertainment organizations. Yet many ticketing and venue professionals struggle with where to begin. That’s why Open Door Arts developed The Hub, a free, first-of-its-kind online resource designed to turn accessibility intentions into action.

Launched in August 2025 after seven years of research, collaboration and development, The Hub offers more than 50 topic pages specifically related to accessibility for arts, culture and entertainment organizations, a self-assessment tool, planning templates, expert directories and more, all framed by art from artists with disabilities.

In conversation with Dani Rose, Director of Cultural Access at Open Door Arts, INTIX explored the inspiration behind The Hub, the journey to bring it to life, and how it can help organizations of any size, type or genre better serve attendees with disabilities.

INTIX: What inspired Open Door Arts to create The Hub?

Dani Rose: We created The Hub because the cultural sector needs it, and the disability community deserves it. Organizations want to be more accessible and welcome the disability community, and The Hub recognizes that the process can feel overwhelming. The differences between regulations, standards, guidelines, best practices and industry norms can sometimes overcomplicate the “how-to” of accessibility. The Hub provides a clear path and everything needed to turn accessibility intentions into action.

INTIX: This wonderful project was seven years in the making. What were some of the pivotal moments or milestones along the way?

Dani Rose: We first imagined The Hub in 2018, based on both our decades of experience and what we kept hearing and seeing in the field: Cultural [and live event] workers wanted to be more accessible, but they didn’t know where to begin.

In 2022 through 2023, we conducted landmark research, published as the Toward a Culture of Access Reports, which confirmed what the disability community had long been saying — people were tired of inaccessibility and unpredictability, while cultural organizations lacked clear starting points and trusted resources.

We launched our self-assessment tool in 2024, giving organizations their first comprehensive way to evaluate access across policies, practices and programs — and to see where improvements could be made.

With that foundation in place, we began building The Hub itself in 2024, collaborating with experts with disabilities, web developers, access consultants and over 40 disabled artists to shape a platform that was accessible in both content and form.

We launched The Hub to the public on Aug. 22, 2025, with over 50 curated topic pages, the self-assessment tool, planning templates, expert directories and an art gallery of disabled artists. It’s everything you need. All in one place. And it’s free!

INTIX: A majority of contributors with lived disability experience shaped the final platform. Why is this so important?

Dani Rose: The Hub was co-created by Open Door Arts and more than 30 of the most trusted experts in arts and culture, accessibility, disability and the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). Each contributor brought both deep professional expertise and rich lived experience, with 80% self-identifying as disabled and representing a wide range of disabilities. Together, they shaped every aspect of The Hub’s content and design, ensuring a diversity of disabled perspectives were centered in every part of the process.

By centering the disability community, we uphold the Disability Rights Movement’s principle “Nothing About Us Without Us” and the Disability Justice principle “Leadership of the most impacted.” Authentic representation is critical to understanding accessibility. Our contributors balanced their professional expertise with lived experience, guiding users toward what truly matters in creating access within every facet of an organization or public space. This ensured The Hub was not just about compliance, but about connection, culture and community.

Editor’s Note: Learn more about the contributors to The Hub here.

INTIX: For someone who is hearing about The Hub for the first time, how would you describe it in a nutshell?

Dani Rose: The Hub is an easy-to-use, centralized resource with vetted, disability-centered information, expert guidance and practical tools. Assess. Plan. Connect. Learn. Implement. Everything you need, all in one place. And it’s free.

You will find over 50 accessibility topic pages with expert-curated, disability-centered content; comprehensive tools to evaluate your accessibility and take action; training and certification options to improve your practices; and an expert directory to connect you with national leaders in cultural access.

The Hub was designed for anyone to begin creating lasting, impactful change within their role, their community, their organization/company and the sector/industry.

INTIX: The platform includes vetted resources on over 50 topics, over 200 glossary terms and over 400 vetted external resources. How did Open Door Arts curate and validate all of this information?

Dani Rose: We worked with a national network of accessibility experts, disability leaders and legal specialists to co-create each section. Resources were reviewed multiple times from multiple perspectives for accuracy, usability and alignment with best practices. Every inclusion was vetted by our expert archivist, so organizations can trust what they find. And when we discovered gaps, we created templates and guides ourselves to ensure nothing essential was missing.

INTIX: Why was it important to include artwork by more than 40 artists with disabilities throughout the site?

Dani Rose: Featuring disabled artists underscores that people with disabilities are leaders, creators and innovators in the cultural sector. It keeps the human side of this work front and center. Every page of The Hub features artwork by a disabled artist, and over 40 in total agreed to their work to be featured. Each piece is a testament to the power, nuance and brilliance of disabled creativity. This is not decoration. It is a deliberate act of centering disabled artists, whose stories, perspectives and cultural labor are too often sidelined. We hope their work invites reflection, provokes imagination and provides deeper context for the work ahead.

Editor’s Note: Meet the artists and explore their work here.

INTIX: Can you explain how the self-assessment tool works and how organizations might use it to plan accessibility improvements?

Dani Rose: Improving accessibility doesn’t start with having all the answers. It starts with asking the right questions — as we like to say, “You can’t grow what you don’t know.” Accessibility work is often reactive, not proactive, and by completing a self-assessment, your organization develops a systemization for proactive access work, for asking questions and making determinations. The process reveals the patterns and trends to focus on so that you can set realistic and achievable access improvement goals. 

The Hub’s free self-assessment survey includes over 300 questions across five sections: Organizational Approach, Space, Access Services, Communication and Programming. Each question links to The Hub’s glossary, guides and legal identifier tool, so users gain context in real time.

When completed, the tool generates an instant report with an overall indicator, section and sub-section breakdowns, and a copy of every response — plus guided resources to help shape an accessibility plan. The report flags legally required items and points to our embedded legal identifier tool. And we have free, easy-to-use planning templates to help organizations assign roles, set timelines, and track progress.

INTIX: Ticketing and admissions have their own dedicated page, which you co-authored with Betty Siegel. What are some key takeaways ticketing professionals should know from that section?

Dani Rose: It has been the goal of my career to empower our ticketing industry to discover and embrace the very real and practical ways in which they can create accessibility, increase equitable participation and increase inclusion of the disability community. The ticketing industry is perfectly poised to be leaders in accessibility, shifting the cultural arts and live entertainment industry to be leaders in equity, inclusion and belonging.

I emphasize in my training sessions that ticketing and accessibility go hand in hand: 

• Ticketing is often the first access point — it sets the tone before a guest even arrives.
   
• Regulations exist under the ADA and disability rights laws, but they are often written in confusing legalese and leave gray areas. Venues try to fill those gaps with rigid policies — sometimes well-intentioned, but often creating new barriers.
   
• Flexibility in purchase and admission processes reduces those barriers.
   
• Most importantly: Access is customer service. Inclusive ticketing practices welcome every guest as a valued participant.
   

I was honored to work alongside Betty Siegel on this project. She co-authored several content pages and vetted our legal sections to ensure accuracy and comprehension. Reading her comments felt like attending “Betty Siegel University” — her wisdom is woven into every page.

Our hope is that these learning pages set a new baseline of understanding for the ticketing industry. Because we are the people who work with the people, we hold immense power to shape accessible experiences.

INTIX: Why was it essential for all resources to be free and publicly accessible?

Dani Rose: Because equity means removing barriers, and cost is often a barrier. Every organization, no matter its size or budget, deserves access to high-quality accessibility tools. Making The Hub free ensures that the smallest local arts center has the same opportunity to grow as the largest cultural institution.

Through research, we know budget is often cited as a top barrier to accessibility. But many solutions are low or no-cost, and organizations just need to know what they are. Legal information is usually free, but best practices and implementation guides are often locked behind paywalls. By removing that barrier, The Hub ensures planning, resources and learning are free for everyone, leaving organizations’ own resources available for action. Nothing should get in the way of taking action.

INTIX: How do you envision The Hub reducing barriers not just at the learning stage, but at the “doing” stage?

Dani Rose: The Hub is designed to be active — where learning is doing. Each topic page includes clear implementation steps and copy/paste templates for policies and practices that can be used immediately. We have gathered what experts believe is everything needed to take the first, second and third steps — to not only learn, but also assess, plan, connect and implement. Move from good access intentions to great access actions.

The Hub is here to help at every stage:

• Assess: Use the self-assessment to evaluate current practices and identify growth areas.
   
• Plan: Build a clear plan using our free templates and tools.
   
• Connect: Engage with experts and peer communities.
   
• Learn: Access curated resources to strengthen knowledge and practices.

That’s what we mean when we say The Hub turns intentions into actions: Everything you need, all in one place.

INTIX: The Hub is centric to the arts and access, but as Maureen Andersen, INTIX CEO, said on a weekly Wednesday Wisdom meeting, a venue is a venue is a venue. Outside of arts and culture, how can other types and genres of venues and organizations benefit from The Hub?

Dani Rose: The Hub reflects what the disability community wants and needs for equal participation in a variety of settings. While some subject matter leans arts-specific, the tools are broadly transferable. A venue is a venue, a seat is a seat, a ticket is a ticket — whether at a theater, sporting event, arena, casino show, general admission house, cabaret or even the rodeo!

Pages on: ticketing and admissions, care and convenience, signage and wayfinding, food and beverage service, historic spaces, service animals, seating, inclusive emergency preparedness or offering services apply across sectors. Digital accessibility, social media and print materials matter everywhere. Even information on employees with disabilities. 

And for anyone who interacts with the public, the essentials section is a must. Too often, we focus on the “how-to” without enough of the “why.” Understanding the “why” leads to stronger policies, practices and procedures — not just compliance. Access creates equitable participation, deeper connection and often increased participation. That benefits everyone.

INTIX: What does success look like for Open Door Arts in the first year of The Hub’s launch?

Dani Rose: We are thrilled to finally share The Hub with the world! Success this year means as many people as possible are using The Hub, exploring resources, completing assessments and applying tools. It also means activating new interactivity with our expert directory and disabled artist gallery and reaching into new networks.

For me personally, success also looks like expanding our peer learning communities — groups of arts organizations, state agencies, foundations, leadership networks or employee resource and professional development groups that gather and incentivize groups to move through The Hub cycle together. As a facilitator, I guide them individually and as a group through self-assessment, planning, strategy and data analysis while benefiting from peer learning.

At the same time, I’m leading research and development for our upcoming training and certification program, set to launch next summer.

Editor’s Note: Learn more about current and upcoming training and certification opportunities here.

INTIX: How do you see this resource evolving — will it be continuously updated as laws, technologies and practices change?

Dani Rose: Yes. The Hub is built to be a living resource. As best practices, technology and community inclusion evolves, so will the site. Our community of experts, collaborators and peers will continue working with us to keep it active, accurate and immediately useful.

INTIX: What would you say to ticketing professionals and venue leaders who may feel overwhelmed about where to start?

Dani Rose: For ticketing professionals: Start with the Learn section. Begin with ticketing and admissions, then explore seating. Don’t forget to check out the glossary terms and additional resources linked on each page. From there, check out offering services and fulfilling requests, or dive into specific services like captions, audio description, service animals or mobility devices. These are immediate, department-level actions within your control.

For venue leaders: Start with Assess and Plan. Use the 300+ question self-assessment to identify where to celebrate, where to investigate and where to improve. The instant report and free planning templates make it easy to assign teams, set timelines, and align resources. Holistic, systemized accessibility is more efficient and cost-effective than one-off accommodations, and we’ve created this process to help organizations of all shapes and sizes make that shift.

INTIX: How can members of the INTIX community get most out of The Hub right now?

Dani Rose: INTIX members, we built The Hub with you in mind! If you have a question from a customer, a Women in Ticketing Facebook thread or a conference session, chances are the answer is here. If we don’t have the exact answer, you will find glossary terms, templates or experts to connect with.

For example: grievances. Everyone with customer-facing roles may receive ADA-related complaints. On The Hub, you’ll find guidance on grievance procedures, sample policies and a copy/paste template you can adapt today. Also, rental agreements. Whether you’re a renter or a landlord, you’ll find venue survey checklists, responsibility matrices and contract riders.

And the questions I so often get from our peers, how to consider: 

• Pre-visit information 
• Language and communication
• Staff training
• Theaters 
• Historic spaces 
• Assistive listening systems

These are real, vetted tools backed by years of expertise — ready when you are.

INTIX: If readers take away only one message about The Hub, what should it be?

Dani Rose: Access is not a checklist — it’s a culture. And The Hub is changing the culture of culture. Too often, tools are hard to find, inconsistent, expensive or inaccessible themselves. That’s why The Hub exists: To bring together vetted, disability-centered resources and expert support all in one place.

With The Hub, you have free access to the knowledge, tools and community needed to understand where you are, where to go next and how to create meaningful, lasting change across the sector.

INTIX: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Dani Rose: Accessibility is joyful work. The Hub isn’t just a platform — it’s a movement. It is about building a sector where people with disabilities are fully represented, welcomed and celebrated.

It’s what the sector needs, and what the disability community deserves.

Editor’s Note: With free topic pages, a self-assessment tool, planning templates, expert guidance and curated resources, The Hub equips ticketing professionals and venue leaders to take concrete steps toward greater inclusion. Whether you start by exploring the ticketing and admissions section, completing the self-assessment tool or connecting with experts, the message is clear: Accessibility is not a checklist, it’s a culture. Visit The Hub today to begin turning access intentions into action.